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Glamour
Clyde Rawlinson is an English singer-songwriter, musician, guitarist, and poet. He's best known as the lead singer of the glam rock band V.Raptor, but is also known to aid civilians in trouble under the name Glamour. His work in the music industry and in literature has given him nicknames such as The Warlock of Love, the Pixie Prince of Glam Rock, and even 20th Century Boy after one of his songs. Rawlinson is considered one of the pioneers of the glam rock movement of the 1970s. At the age of 28, he was attacked while on stage by a bestial mutant which led to fatal injuries just two weeks before his 29th birthday, leading to him being put into stasis until he could be healed at some point in the future. Never truly declared dead, only missing, his fans eagerly awaited in return. Moving from London to Emerald City, Rawlinson used the funds generated from his bank savings' slowly building interest to fund a small record store and hangout spot named "RƎVO⅃UTION", known locally as a safe place for mutants, mutates, and any sort of non-human to gather and be themselves. Appearance General Appearance Clyde is a 5ft 4 humanoid mutant whose most outstanding feature is his unruly, curly brown hair. His eyes are an indeterminable shade of green-brown, and he has prominent (though not buck) front teeth. Clyde's rather strong jaw is a defining feature, as well as his short and somewhat stocky build. Costumed Appearance Although it can work as armor, Clyde's heroic outfit is about as showy as one would expect from a glam rock star. With golden spike-studs, gemstone embellishments, and fine silk fabric, his outfit was practically made for the stage. Equipment ''' Hero Outfit: While not armor, the outfit was made to give Clyde maximum mobility while still looking glamorous on stage. As Clyde (when forced to fight) is a ranged attacker, this outfit is light and comfortable, sacrificing defense for speed. Personality Clyde is a free spirit with a heart of gold, taking pride in his mutant genes and childish yet mature behavior. When someone's mood is down, Clyde is often the first on the scene to offer a sugar-sweet smile and open arms. It's rare, if ever, that Clyde is upset, most often being found with a spring in his step and a song in his heart as he tries in every way to make his and other's lives just that little bit better. With his passion for romance, peace, tranquility, and a fondness for Tolkien and Bakshi, it's no wonder is band and fans affectionately named him The Warlock of Love, a title taken from his book of poetry of the same name. History Early Life and Career Rawlinson was born at Hackney Hospital and grew up in Stoke Newington, in the borough of Hackney, east London, the son of Maggie Rawlinson (née Bishop) and Lucasz Rawlinson, a lorry driver. His father was an Ashkenazi Jew of Russian and Polish ancestry, while his mother was of English, Welsh and Scottish descent. Moving to Wimbledon, southwest London, he fell in love with the rock and roll of Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Arthur Crudup and Chuck Berry and hung around coffee bars such as the 2i's in Soho. Rawlinson was a pupil at Northwold Primary School, Upper Clapton. At the age of nine, he was given his first guitar and began a skiffle band. While at school, he played guitar in "Lena and the Ribbonettes," a trio whose vocalist was a 12-year-old Lena Weiss. During lunch breaks at school, he would play his guitar in the playground to a small audience of friends. At 15, he was expelled from school for bad behaviour. It was around this time that his mutant abilities began to present themselves and he found himself able to manipulate sound to create light. He was afraid of this, however, and kept this hidden. Rawlinson briefly joined a modelling agency, appearing in a clothing catalogue for the menswear store. He was a model for the suits in their catalogues as well as for cardboard cut-outs to be displayed in shop windows. Town magazine featured him as an early example of the mod movement in a photo spread with two other models. In 1964, Rawlinson met his first manager, Gideon Urie-Fredrickson and recorded a slick commercial track backed by session musicians called "All at Once" which was never officially released. Rawlinson began to call himself Glamour when he met and moved in with actor Michael Haig, who became his second manager. This encounter afforded Rawlinson a lifeline to the heart of show business, as Haig saw Rawlinson's potential while he spent hours sitting cross-legged on Haig's floor playing his acoustic guitar. Rawlinson at this time liked to appear in boho-chic, wearing a corduroy peaked cap similar to his then current source of inspiration, Bob Dylan. Haig later sold Rawlinson's contract and recordings for £200 to his landlord, property mogul Garrett Engels, in lieu of three months' back rent, but Engels was too busy with his property empire to do anything for him. A year or so later, Rawlinson's mother pushed into Engels's office and shouted at him that he had done nothing for her son. She demanded he tear up the contract and he willingly complied. The tapes of the first two tracks produced during this recording session vanished for over 25 years before resurfacing in 1991 and selling for nearly $8,000. Their eventual release on CD in 1993 made available some of the earliest of Rawlinson's known recordings. He signed to Jewel Records in August 1965 and recorded his debut single "The Wizard" with The Ladybirds on backing vocals, and studio session musicians playing all the instruments. "The Wizard", Rawlinson's first single, was released on 19 November 1965. In 1966, Rawlinson turned up at Francis Scott's front door with his guitar and proclaimed that he was going to be a big star and he needed someone to make all of the arrangements. Scott invited Rawlinson in and listened to his songs. A recording session was immediately booked and the songs were very simply recorded. Only "Hippy Gumbo", a sinister-sounding, baroque folk-song, was released at the time as Rawlinson's third unsuccessful single. One song, "You Scare Me to Death," was used in a toothpaste advertisement. In early 1967 he joined Scott's own band "Margot" because they needed a songwriter and he admired Rawlinson's writing ability. The band achieved some success as a live act but sold few records. His tenure with the band was brief and the band split following an ill-fated German gig in which he was unable to keep his powers contained, leading to heavy damage to the stage and injuries to himself and his bandmates. Rawlinson took some time to reassess his situation. He stopped calling himself Glamour, but his imagination was filled with new ideas and he began to write fantasy novels (The Krakenmist and Pictures Of Purple People) as well as poems and songs, sometimes finding it hard to separate facts from his own elaborate myth - he famously claimed to have spent time with a wizard in Paris who gave him secret knowledge and could levitate. The time spent with him was often alluded to but remained "mythical". Given time to reinvent himself, Rawlinson's songwriting took off and he began writing many of the poetic and neo-romantic songs that would appear on his first albums with Velociraptor. Velociraptor When Margot collapsed, among other problems, the band's equipment had been repossessed by their label Southland Records. But Rawlinson, unperturbed, rallied to create Velociraptor, his own rock band together with guitarist Glen Hawkins, drummer Gerry McCarthy and an unknown bass player. Scott recalled of Rawlinson: "He got a gig at the Electric Garden then put an ad in Melody Maker to get the musicians, specifically those he described as being "out there, different, more than human" as a way to recruit fellow mutants. The paper came out on Wednesday, the day of the gig. At three o'clock he was interviewing musicians, at five he was getting ready to go on stage.... It was a disaster. He just got booed off the stage. They remembered what happened and they didn't want what he was putting out there." Following this concert, Rawlinson pared the band down to just himself and McCarthy, and they continued as a psychedelic-folk rock acoustic duo, playing Rawlinson's songs, with McCarthy playing assorted hand and kit percussion and occasional bass to Rawlinson's acoustic guitars and voice. McCarthy said of Rawlinson that after the first disastrous electric gig, "He didn't have the courage to try it again; it really had been a blow to his ego... Later he told everyone he'd been forced into going acoustic because Southland had repossessed all his gear. In fact he'd been forced to go acoustic because he was scared to do anything else." The original version of Velociraptor released three albums and four singles, flirting with the charts, reaching as high as number fifteen. One of the highlights of this era was when the duo played at the first free Hyde Park concert in 1968. Although the free-spirited, drug-taking McCarthy was fired from the group after their first American tour, they were a force within the hippie underground scene while they lasted. Their music was filled with Rawlinson's otherworldly poetry. In 1969, Rawlinson published his first and only book of poetry entitled The Warlock of Love. Although some critics dismissed it as self-indulgence, it was full of Rawlinson's florid prose and wordplay, selling 40,000 copies and in 1969-70 became one of Britain's best-selling books of poetry. It was reprinted in 1992 by the Velociraptor Appreciation Society. In keeping with his early rock and roll interests, Rawlinson began bringing amplified guitar lines into the duo's music, buying a white Fender Stratocaster decorated with a paisley teardrop motif. After replacing McCarthy with Adam Mayhew, he let the electric influences come forward even further on A Beard of Stars, the final album to be credited to Velociraptor. It closed with the song "Elemental Child", featuring a long electric guitar break influenced by Jimi Hendrix. Becoming more adventurous musically, Clyde bought a modified vintage Gibson Les Paul guitar (featured on the cover of the album V. Raptor), and then wrote and recorded his first hit "Ride a White Swan", which was dominated by a rolling hand-clapping back-beat, Rawlinson's electric guitar and Mayhew's percussion. At this time he also shortened the group's name to V. Raptor and retook the name of Glamour while the other mutant and mutate members of the band took their own unique stagenames reflecting their powers. V. Raptor and Glam Rock Rawlinson and his producer oversaw the session for "Ride a White Swan", the single that changed Rawlinson's career which was inspired in part by Mungo Jerry's success with "In the Summertime", moving Rawlinson away from predominantly acoustic numbers to a more electric sound. Recorded on 1 July 1970 and released later that year, it made slow progress in the UK Top 40, until it finally peaked in early 1971 at number two. Rawlinson took to wearing top hats and feather boas on stage as well as putting drops of glitter on each of his cheekbones. Stories are conflicting about his inspiration for this—some say it was introduced by his personal assistant, Anya Soro, although Rawlinson told Joanne Hawke in a 1974 interview on that he noticed the glitter on another band's dressing table prior to a photo session and casually daubed some on his face there and then. Other performers—and their fans—soon took up variations on the idea. The era of glam and glitter rock was born. Rawlinson followed "Ride a White Swan" and V. Raptor by expanding the group to a quartet with bassist Jonah Green and drummer Ted Riley, and cutting a five-minute single, "Hot Love", with a rollicking rhythm, string accents and an extended sing-along chorus inspired somewhat by "Hey Jude". It was number one for six weeks and was quickly followed by "Get It On", a grittier, more adult tune that spent four weeks in the top spot. The song was re-titled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" when released in the United States, to avoid confusion with another song with the same title by the American band Chase. The song reached No. 10 in the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1972, the only top 40 single the band had in the US. In November 1971, the band's record label, Gaia, released the Electric Warrior track "Jeepster" without Rawlinson's permission. Outraged, Rawlinson took advantage of the timely lapsing of his Gaia Records contract and left for EMI, who gave him his own record label, the V. Raptor Wax Co. Its bag and label featured an iconic head-and-shoulders image of Rawlinson. Despite the lack of Rawlinson's endorsement, "Jeepster" peaked at number two in the UK. In 1972, Rawlinson achieved two more British number ones with "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru" and two more number twos in "Children of the Revolution" and "Solid Gold Easy Action". V. Raptor record sales accounted for about six percent of total British domestic record sales. The band was reportedly selling 100,000 records a day; however, no V. Raptor single ever became a million-seller in the UK, despite many gold discs and an average of four weeks at the top per number one hit. By late 1973, his pop star fame gradually began to wane, even though he achieved a number three hit, "20th Century Boy", in February and mid-year "The Groover" followed it to number four. "Truck On (Tyke)" missed the UK top 10 reaching only No. 12 in December. However, "Teenage Dream" from the 1974 album Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow showed that Rawlinson was attempting to create richer, more involved music than he had previously attempted with V. Raptor. He expanded the line up of the band to include a second guitarist, Walter Ellison, and other studio musicians, and began to take more control over the sound and production of his records. It was then that V. Raptor would go on a temporary hiatus so that each member of the band could pursue other interests. Resurgence In September 1975, Rawlinson returned to the UK and to the public eye from the US with a low-key tour. Rawlinson made regular appearances on the pop show Supersonic, directed by his old friend Daniel Winters and released a succession of singles, but he never attempted to regain the success of his glory days of the early 1970s. Later in early 1976, Rawlinson was commissioned to front a six-part series called Rawlinson in which he hosted a mix of new and established bands and performed his own songs. The show was broadcast during the post-school half-hour on ITV earmarked for children and teenagers and it was a big success. Rawlinson's friend and fellow musician (although unknown as to who he could have been) was the final guest on the last episode of Rawlinson. The two performed near the end of the show, and after Rawlinson's signoff, they began to play a bluesy song over the closing credits. Right as the vocals were about to begin, however, Rawlinson stumbled off the stage and out of the camera frame. The other musician's amusement was clearly visible, and the band stopped playing after a few seconds. With no time for a retake, the occurrence was aired. The 1976 Incident On 16 September 1976, the band held another concert, again in Hyde Park. During their performance which had attracted fans both old and new, an animal-like mutant leaped onto the stage from amidst the crowd of fans and began to attack the band, including Rawlinson. This would mark the first time that Rawlinson openly used his mutant abilities, defending himself and his band from the attack using a combination of sound and light. The crowd adored this, but feared for the safety of V. Raptor. The animal-like mutant was taken down with the help of his other bandmates, but all were seriously injured. As they were being transported to the hospital, the car they were in collided with another vehicle and was sent crashing into a nearby tree. Officially, the band disappeared, but they had actually been taken to a lab in the Southern English countryside to be put into stasis until they could be healed. Despite their protests, they were placed into the stasis chambers, set to awaken when medical technology had progressed enough. Weaknesses * Generally a pacifist, he prefers to solve things without fighting but if he has to he'll fight non-lethally. * Can be (to quote CelestialAria) endearingly stupid sometimes * Arachnophobia * Dyslexia Powers and Abilities Clyde has the ability to transduce sound into light and can use any source of sound for this. He stores this energy until she is willing and/or able to release it. * Blinding light - The equivalent of setting off localized flashbangs. * "Glam-Bam Thank You, Ma'am" - A light show so intense it overwhelms the nervous system of the person watching and often causes unconsciousness. Rarely used as it exhausts him. * Lasers ( beams of light that can cut through solid metal if he focuses hard enough) * Photon blast ( a beam of solid light that strikes with concussive force, like a nonlethal bullet) * Holograms (both solid and intangible) * "Light fog" which refracts light to hide people and/or objects from view * Flight (by manipulating the energy around him) * Force Fields (offensive and defensive) * Therapeutic Light to calm and increase blood circulation of allies, boosts healing. Still to master this. * Ultra-Violet radiation blasts (Has yet to discover this) * Has also learned to release the stored sound inside him in its original form for a supersonic blast. * Is an accomplished singer, dancer, and is a well trained musician. He is incredibly agile. * Street/show magic. Card tricks, illusions, and so on. He has a natural affinity to certain types of magic that he combines with his light/sound abilities to create the kind of magic one would expect to see in Vegas, even going as far as to "vanish". Skills * '''Master Musician: Since his youth, Clyde has been honing his skills on the guitar, his mastery thrusting him forward into fame and fronting his own bands as a guitarist and lead singer. * Stellar Showman: His time on stage with his band has given him superb confidence which shines through in everything he does. An air of theatricality surrounds him at all times and he's not afraid to show off if the situation calls for it. * Wonderful Wordsmith: Lyricist, poet, story writer, Clyde considers himself to be a fantastic writer. Although his genres are rather niche, he has his fans and loves to spend his time writing and reading * Calming Care: Despite his high energy, rather childish behavior, he's known to have a calming presence around those he's comfortable around. He's more than happy to take time out of his day to help others. Category:Characters